PA’s Midway has new owners

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The Midway Drive-In marquee. Photo from the Midway web site

Five years ago today, one of my last stops on my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey was the Midway Drive-In in Mifflintown PA. There’s been a good bit of news since then, and an important event earlier this month.

At the time, my best guess on the Midway’s owner was Jeff Favuzza. Maybe that was true in 2017. Since then, an article in the Lewistown Sentinel revealed that Michael and Penny Clark bought the Midway in November 2020. “We wanted to make sure it stayed open,” Penny told the Sentinel. They also owned the River’s Edge RV Park next door and hadn’t really planned to get into the drive-in theater business.

The Clarks put the RV park and drive-in up for sale after the 2022 season, and this time the buyers were Timothy and Lacie Wert. They finalized the sale on Dec. 1, but the Sentinel ran its story about it yesterday. Just like the previous owners, the Werts were mainly interested in the River’s Edge. When the Midway’s fans began to get nervous after the sale, Lacie posted to the drive-in’s Facebook page, “You may have heard, the Midway Drive-In is under new ownership, but that doesn’t change a thing! So, mark your calendars now! We’ll be opening May 12th!”

That’s about all I’ve got, but it’s enough. It’s such good news when a drive-in passes from one responsible owner to another. Getting the chance to write about it on the anniversary of my virtual visit is just a bonus. Happy New Year, everybody!

Cheyenne hosts legit indoor drive-in

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Drive-in directions, as posted on the Laramie County Events web page

Normally, when I hear the phrase “indoor drive-in” as part of a community event, my lip curls as I think, “Isn’t that cute?” Are they using carboard boxes for kids? Is it just a drive-in theme for a movie in a gymnasium?

Now I’ll pause before thinking that way. Last weekend, the Laramie County Event Center, just east of Cheyenne WY, held a different kind of indoor drive-in. It included privately owned vehicles that drove inside to watch the movie. According to their Facebook page, they’ve been holding these holiday-season indoor drive-ins since at least 2019.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle ran a nice collection of photos from last Saturday’s event, which is how I learned about it. There were more than a few pickup trucks among the 60 vehicles allowed inside, along with plenty of faux “lawn” space for walk-in patrons. The organizers provided a free movie, free popcorn and sodas, and collected coat donations. It all sounds like a great way to spend a cold wintry evening.

Since the only permanent drive-in, Powell WY’s American Dream, is on the other side of the state, I hope that someone in Cheyenne can figure out how to build something outdoors for starry summer nights. Till then, at least they have this.

Welcome to my rabbit hole

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A white rabbit sitting in a rabbit hole
© DepositPhotos.com / zannaholstova

Although no one asked for it, here’s a story of one day’s drive-in theater research. This morning was a typical session, so I’ll share it with you while it’s still fresh on my mind. It’s my journey down a research rabbit hole, which began with finding the location of one dead drive-in and led to the unearthing of a second.

CinemaTreasures is a frequent stop along my online rounds. In particular, I like to see whether another CT user has added a previously unknown drive-in to its long list. So it was this morning; “50sSnipes” had contributed the short history of the Lafayette Drive-In in Lafayette LA. I read that the drive-in had been somewhere on US 90, that it opened sometime in 1947, and that it closed in 1955.

Because of my long experience with certain tools, I wanted to help find more details about the short-lived Lafayette so I could contribute them to CT. First, I tried the University of Colorado’s link to an online Boxoffice magazine database, but that didn’t turn up much. (It’s missing a lot of issues.) Next, I swung by HistoricAerials to look for unaccounted-for drive-ins in old aerial photos and topo maps. That’s where I spotted a drive-in about two miles west of Lafayette on US 90. That was promising!

Then I dug into my subscription at Newspapers.com. Those folks happened to carry old copies of Lafayette’s local newspaper, The Daily Advertiser, and a local historian had already highlighted the drive-in’s grand opening ad from June 1, 1947. Great! However, that ad clearly showed that the drive-in was three miles east of town on US 90.

I needed more information, so I turned to another great source, the Media History Digital Library hosted by the Internet Archive. Searching on the Lafayette Drive-In, I found the following snippet from The Exhibitor magazine, March 9, 1955:

“The Lafayette Drive-In, Lafayette, La., will close for good advised E. R. Sellers, one of the owners. Hub Drive-In Theatres, Inc., operators of two other drive-ins in that city, the Hub and Twin.”

The Twin already had an entry in the CT list, but not the Hub. That must have been that drive-in west of Lafayette! Now I had to look elsewhere for the Lafayette Drive-In, and to gather more info about the Hub.

Back to The Daily Advertiser. The first appearance of the Hub Drive-In was in 1948, but that was a drive-in restaurant serving cold beer and sandwiches. The first mention of the Hub Drive-In Theater was in a year-end ad, Dec. 30, 1949, saying that it was under construction. Long story short, the Hub opened on March 21, 1950 on the “Scott Road” (US 90 west of Lafayette). Its last ad in the Advertiser was on Oct. 22, 1956. A year later, the former Hub’s land was listed for sale in the classifieds.

That was enough to submit the Hub Drive-In to CinemaTreasures. Later, I found another magazine note, from Nov. 21, 1956, saying that the Hub was still closed “for rebuilding of the screen tower which was flattened during a severe wind storm.” I don’t know the date of that deadly (to the Hub at least) storm; I couldn’t find a matching story in the Advertiser.

Then back to HistoricAerials to find the Lafayette Drive-In, the reason I started down this rabbit hole in the first place. As I learned from topo maps, US 90 didn’t really go east out of Lafayette, it was more south-southeast. Once I knew which road to follow, I got lucky again. Three years after the Lafayette closed, it was still in pretty good shape in a 1958 aerial photo. After matching the site with a modern-day address, I was able to post a comment outlining the exact location, along with those open and close dates.

Why did I spend so much time tracking down two Louisiana drive-in stories? I can’t imagine ever using them in any of my books. Maybe it started with curiosity, and then I felt a sense of responsibility to put my notes in the hands of some future historian who might write a Louisiana drive-in book. It’s satisfying to learn something that no one (at least on CT) had known about before. And it feels good to feel the fresh air on my face when I finally emerge from one of those rabbit holes.